Billerica officials fuming over prison plan

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/22/2012 06:35:03 AM EST

BILLERICA -- Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian's announcement Monday of the state's plan to build a $37 million expansion at the Middlesex House of Correction on Treble Cove Road caught local officials by surprise.

In fact, Town Manager John Curran said his office never received any inkling of confirmation before the news became public.

"You guys knew about the expansion before we did," Curran said.

The town manager focused his ire not upon Koutoujian, however, but at the Division of Capital Management, the state agency responsible for major public-building construction and real-estate services.

Monday's confirmation came almost one year after DCAM officials met with Cambridge city councilors to present a proposal outlining a plan to sell the aging 22-story Edward J. Sullivan Courthouse in East Cambridge, whose only tenant is the jail on the top floors that houses roughly 400 prisoners awaiting trial.

DCAM officials never spoke to anyone from Billerica before last November's meeting in Cambridge, one in which they also outlined a plan that involved transferring prisoners to Billerica and expanding the Middlesex House of Correction.

Curran said he has not received any updates from DCAM since March.

"They better not think they can just walk in and tie into our sewer system," Curran said about the agency.

More than 25 percent of Billerica is still awaiting access to the town's sewer system.

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In recent years the town has made efforts to extend sewer lines, such as the $9 million Contract 34B project that will tie-in an east-side neighborhood, a plan involving more than 28,000 feet of sewer.

Once finished, 317 homes along 25 streets in East Billerica will be connected.

The heart of the town's sewer woes, however, cannot be addressed solely by building new lines. The Letchworth Avenue Wastewater Treatment Facility has the capacity to treat 5.4 million gallons of wastewater per day, but the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has set the town's flow limit at 4.6 million gallons per day.

Another 5 miles of sewer in East Billerica will put the town near its limit.

"One agency (DCAM) wants to force more than 400 beds of new prisoners down our throat and another (MassDEP) has said we cannot expand the sewer," said Curran. "If the state thinks it can just hook in, it won't be that simple."

Residents have been waiting decades for sewer access, Curran pointed out, and "they want to make an exception for inmates."

The plan Koutoujian outlined Monday involves building a two-story, prefabricated concrete pod with 256 beds and a one-story dormitory with 240 beds. The additional 496 beds is temporary, according to Koutoujian, and will be ready by December 2013.

Koutoujian has stressed that the presence of jail pre-trial detainees in Billerica, which include prisoners accused of violent and nonviolent crimes, will be temporary until officials find a suitable 5-acre site to build the Southern Middlesex Justice Center.

"Temporary could mean 20 years," said Curran.

Selectmen Chairman Andrew Deslaurier said he's tired of "consistently being cut out of the process."

"The rubber is hitting the road and we're not getting any sort of choice," he said. "It's also more than sewer -- being a host community takes up a lot of resources."

Deslaurier said the town's fire, ambulance and police services also respond to emergencies at the House of Correction.

"It also smells bad on the heels of an election," he added.

Billerica state Rep. Marc Lombardo said Wednesday he and state Sen. Ken Donnelly, the town's other voice on Beacon Hill, will do everything they can to make sure the town receives as much mitigation as it can in return.

"We're furious about it," he said. "But we'll try to make the best out of a bad situation."

As for the DEP regulations on wastewater, Lombardo said he's working on convincing state officials to grant Billerica a permit to increase its treatment capacity.

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